If you are a fan of The Wednesday Chef blog, there's no question, you will enjoy My Berlin Kitchen: Adventures in Love and Life by Luisa Weiss now out in paperback. The book is a memoir with recipes and Weiss traces her journey through her memories of food in vivid detail. The style of writing, like Weiss herself is a bit of a mishmash. Her parents are Italian and American but she was born and partially raised in Germany. She is very precise when it comes to recipe writing yet there are splashes of sensuality and emotion in her prose as well.

Weiss is a good writer and a master of detail. Her experiences and recollections of her time in Germany, the US, France and Italy are often snapshots of times and places and really have the ability to transport you. The book follows a romantic storyline, with some funny bits interspersed with plenty of angst, and it's generally pleasurable to read, although she's clearly not a happy-go-lucky live-for-the-day type. 

Memoirs require a certain level of introspection and self involvement and as a result the subject can come across as self-absorbed at times, especially when written by someone who is fairly young. Ultimately I didn't find Weiss as endearing as I would have hoped. Frankly I had the same issues with the Julie/Julia Project. I also found some gaps and unanswered questions perplexing--why did she live with her father in the US instead of her mother?  Why did she accept the job in San Francisco when nothing about living in San Francisco appealed to her? Once she moved to Berlin did her career end in favor of writing her memoir and nothing more? That said, I enjoyed the book, particularly the German comfort food recipes (Gooseberry cream cake, Alsatian flatbread with bacon and creme fraiche, spiced plum butter and spiced cookies) and I do recommend it. 

Viking is giving away one copy of this book to a Cooking with Amy reader, US resident only. Leave a comment telling me about your favorite recipe from The Wednesday Chef blog or the German recipe you'd most like to learn to cook. I'll choose a winner at random on September 5th. You must include your email address in the appropriate field so I can contact you. It will only be visible to me.

I don't write about events very often, especially ones I haven't been to before, but I'm excited to tell you about LUCKYRICE, an Asian food and drink festival coming to San Francisco. 

LUCKYRICE was created by Danielle Chang a Bay Area native and has seen success in NY, LA, Miami and Las Vegas. I'm not sure what took so long for the festival to come to San Francisco, home of so many fantastic Asian cultures and cuisines! 

Chefs participating include some of my favorites like James Syhabout of Hawker Fare, Azalina Eusope of Azalina's, Alexander Ong most recently at Betelnut, Frances Ang, pastry chef at Fifth Floor, Greg Dunsmore of Nojo and Preeti Mistry of Juhu Beach Club. 

Other chefs include Masaharu Morimoto, Sharon Nahm of E&O Asian Kitchen, Kyle Itani  of Hopscotch Restaurant and Bar, Kathy Fang of House of Nanking and Fang, as well as chefs from Izakaya Yuzuki, Ichi Sushi, M.Y. China, Pabu, Roka Akor,  The Slanted Door, Spice Kit, Tacolicious and more. 

This event will create a one night only night market style event. Some of the top bartenders in town will be participating including some of my personal favorites, Kevin Diedrich of Jasper's Corner Tap, Martin Cate of Smuggler's Cove, and H of Elixir. 

I can't wait to try some of the slated dishes like beef tart ate, Mendocino uni with chiccharones and lime, beef tendon and squid salad and Taiwanese corn soup with poached quail egg. I hope you'll join me! 

The details:

Friday, September 6 from 7-10 pm

Ferry Building

Tickets are $88 (a lucky number)

VIP tickets are already sold out so don't delay! 

It's hard to say no to cheese. Since I never tasted Parrano cheese I was more than happy to accept a sample to try.  Apparently it has been around since the 1970's but I can't recall ever seeing it at the market. It's a semi-firm cheese created by a Dutch cheese maker who went to Italy and was inspired to create a Gouda that would be reminiscent of Northern Italian style cheese.  It's aged for at least 5 months and often described as tasting like a cross between Gouda and Parmesan. I'm not sure I agree with that assessment, but I can tell you it's buttery and has a caramel like flavor that complements tomatoes beautifully. 

I've been inundated with cherry tomatoes recently and decided I would use them on a pizza with Parrano cheese. I also happened to have some grilled marinated artichokes and that combination is really something. I added chives for a little color and oniony flavor, but really, just a plain cherry tomato pizza would be delicious too. The good thing about using cherry tomatoes instead of tomato slices and Parrano cheese instead of mozzarella is that neither will make your pizza soggy. That said, biting into a cherry tomato half can be a deliciously juicy experience. 

I love artichokes, but mostly the marinated ones available in jars are not very good. Recently I found Cucina & Amore  grilled marinated whole artichoke hearts in a local grocery store and decided to given them a try. They are now a staple in my pantry!  They are all natural and I think the grilling is what really makes them so outstanding. If you can find them, give them a try. 

Two 10 inch pizzas

Ingredients

1 lb pizza dough, at room temperature

Olive oil

2 cups parrano cheese

2 cusp cherry tomato halves

2/3 cup drained marinated artichoke hearts, preferably roasted (optional)

1 Tablespoon chopped chives

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Divide the pizza dough in half. Lightly oil pizza pans and push the pizza dough into the pans, until it reaches the edge, if if shrinks, gently stretch it back into shape. Top each pizza with 1 cup of cheese and 1 cup of cherry tomato halves. Tuck 1/3 cup artichoke hearts between the tomatoes. Bake until the crust begins to turn brown around the edges and is crisp, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle chives on the pizza before serving.

Enjoy!

Recently Safeway invited me to visit a watermelon grower, Perry & Sons. Safeway has been working with Perry & Sons for 60 years and wanted to put a draw attention to their commitment to local growers. I learned a lot about watermelon, enjoyed some lovely watermelon cuisine but to be honest, I was a little disappointed. The watermelon I took home was a seedless variety and it lacked the depth of flavor and sweetness of a seeded watermelon. It was good, just not as sweet as I would have liked. 

I tend to shy away from buying watermelon because it's such a big fruit. So what do you do with lots of watermelon? In addition to making wonderful salads, I discovered it's terrific for smoothies. The trick is adding another fruit to complement it. I tried cantaloup, banana and blueberries and each were wonderful. It makes sense since watermelon is so good in agua fresca. I bet just about any other summer fruit would be great with watermelon such as peaches or raspberries. And no yogurt or milk needed. Just fruit! 

Interestingly enough my favorite bite of watermelon served on the tour was a chunk of watermelon marinated in balsamic vinegar, it intensified the flavor and balanced the sweetness. If you've got a lot of watermelon on your hands, try it in savory dishes such as salsa, wrapped in prosciutto, in gazpacho with shrimp or in a ceviche. And you can whittle a watermelon down to almost nothing if you blend it up in a smoothie...

1 serving

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup diced chilled watermelon 

1/2 or more frozen fruit such as banana, blueberries, strawberries, etc. 

Instructions

Place the fruit in the blender and blend until smooth. Ok that's it! Nothing more to it. 

Enjoy! 

Makes 12 half pint jars, plus a little more, so fill another jar to keep in the fridge

Ingredients

12 cups peeled, pitted and chopped peaches

1/4 cup minced candied ginger

1 Tablespoon microplaned fresh ginger

2 large vanilla beans or more if small or skinny

2 1/2 cups sugar or more to taste

1/3 cup no/low sugar needed pectin

Instructions

Set up your space for canning. I put out towels and paper towels for cleaning and drying the lids and tops of the jars. Sterilize the jars and lids and put a spoon in the freezer.  Put the peaches and any juice in a large pot (at least 5 quarts) Slice open the vanilla beans, strip out the seeds and add the seeds and pods to the pot along with the ginger. Bring to a boil then simmer and stir for about 10 minutes until the peaches are soft. Remove the pods. 

Whisk the pectin into a cup of sugar. Add the sugar and pectin and bring the preserves back to a boil. Taste it for sweetness and add more sugar as needed. Dip your frozen spoon into the preserves. Run your finger through it, if the path stays clear the preserves are done.

Fill each jar to the first thread so that there is 1/4 - 1/2 inch head room. Clean and dry the rim, place a dry top on and secure with a ring. Process (boil) the jars for 10 minutes then remove them and let them sit undisturbed until completely cool, 12 hours minimum. Test to make sure they are properly sealed and you are good to go. 

Enjoy! 

If I ask you about your favorite wine, you will probably tell me where you enjoyed it and with whom. Perhaps it was at a picnic on a perfectly sunny day, or on a date with the love of your life. Maybe it was at the winery where the wine was made, but probably not. My point is this, wine, like food, is enjoyed in context. It can be very hard for a winery to create a truly memorable experience with wine, but one winery is giving it a shot. 

I'm lucky to have gotten to spend some time at the Jordan winery and to enjoy firsthand the food, wine and hospitality that they are about. I've stayed on their property, had lunch and a full tasting, attended one of their famous halloween parties and gotten to know their talented and creative chef and his wife who heads up hospitality and events. Those experiences have been limited to a privileged few, up till now. And while Jordan uses as many means possible to share the winery experience and lifestyle virtually including photography, videos and even a blog, nothing takes the place of being there. 

The soon-to-be-launched Jordan Winery Estate Tour & Tasting is best described as a fully immersive affair. You start at the winery for a little continental breakfast with fresh fruit grown on the property plus fresh baked goods. 

The first leg of the journey takes you to the garden where you get to see the fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers growing and perhaps enjoy a nibble of something you pick. Across from the garden are a couple of extremely friendly and adorable donkeys and a chicken coop with about a dozen or so chickens, 

Next you'll continue your ride around the estate which is mostly undeveloped and preserved. The estate is 1200 acres including 112 which are used for vineyards and 18 acres with olive trees, gardens, lakes pastures and woods. On the ride you'll likely see some cattle, a mix of Texas longhorn and black angus cross breeds. 

The next stop is at a pretty lake one of two on the property, with a view of  the olive orchard and vineyards. At this point you'll enjoy a selection of  Russian River Chardonnay and two dishes, a fresh escabeche of vegetables and some sushi rice with fruit. The dishes are light but complement the wine in a fresh unexpected way. Dip your bread into olive oil from the estate while feeling the breeze waft through the olive trees. 

And then it's on to a vineyard to see the progress of the vines and grapes. Ask questions, take pictures, pluck a grape and pop it in your mouth; this is where wines are born. 

Finally your journey takes you to a peak, with 360 degree views looking down into the valleys below surrounded by mountain ranges. Another few bites await, some beef likely from the ranch with seasonal vegetables and a selection of cheeses (including a delectable truffled brie from Marin French Cheese), crackers and bread and Jordan's Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. I kept imagining what a perfect spot this would be for a proposal or perhaps to celebrate a special anniversary. There is a little treat at the end of the experience, but I think it's best to keep at least one thing a surprise.

The Jordan Winery Estate Tour & Tasting takes several hours and is not cheap at $120 per person, but it has the potential to be quite memorable. Tours run from mid April through mid November, and begin at 10 am, reservations available online. My thanks to Jordan for allowing me a sneak peek!

Disclaimer: I was a guest of Jordan Winery and helped to organize a preview visit for food and wine bloggers, but I was not financially compensated.